1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to communication devices and more specifically to receiving and transmitting signals between communication devices for wireless remote operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a communication system includes a transmitter and receiver, which respectively transmit and receive information signals over a transmission media such as wires, aether or atmosphere. When aether or atmosphere are used, the transmission is commonly referred to as “wireless communication.” Examples of various types of wireless communication systems include digital cellular, packet data paging, wireless local area networks (WLAN), wireless wide area networks (WWAN), personal communication systems, and others.
One challenge of wireless communication relates to the ability to remotely control the operation of wireless network systems. Conventionally, network software has been developed for remote control of wired local area networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN). Some versions of such software have been developed for specific wakeup operations so that for example, a network administrator may be able to turn on one or more computer systems remotely across the wired network if the remote system is connected. Other applications of such network software are used to remotely operate other devices such as laptop computers, cash registers, ATM machines, and others. One such software is known as Wake-on-LAN®, which was developed by International Business Machines (IBM) Corp (Armonk, N.Y.) and Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, Calif.). Unfortunately, hardwired LAN systems require each user of the network to be physically connected to the network through, for example, cables connected to an Ethernet switch. Usually, as wired networks are physically connected together, they are limited by wire placement. Thus, hardwired LAN systems are generally inflexible with regard to network terminal mobility.
Due to the nature of wireless networks, wireless network systems are usually more flexible with regard to user mobility. However, to maintain mobility, wired systems are also required to connect to the network through access points. Therefore, a user may move within a wireless boundary defined by the wireless transmission range without regard to what access point is being used. Unfortunately, controlling hosts (wireless devices) roaming about a wireless network requires that the host machine be on and in direct communication with the network on a continuous basis which may consume a great deal of power.
Conventionally in wired networks, if the host were disconnected, then it would be off the network. Moreover, the disconnection would be subject to measurement and characterization (e.g., carrier loss, time domain reflectometry (TDR)). However, it is often difficult to ascertain why the host is off the wireless network. For example, the host may be off the network because the user of the host is wandering in and out of range of the network, the host has been powered down or placed in a sleep mode, or may be the result of the host being taken to another location outside the range of the wireless network.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and apparatus to wirelessly control operations of devices associated with a wireless network. In addition, it would be desirable to know the network status of the device on the wireless network even when the device is powered down.